Worlds Absolute: Leandro and Buchecha Shut Out New School Challengers

The finals for the black belt absolute division are set and the up-and-comers in search of gold will have to wait another year to try again.

11-time World champion Marcus Buchecha Almeida’s path through the bracket began with a win over the big man Otavio Nalati. Buchecha was explosive but cautious, using takedowns and cycling through positions to rack up 13 unanswered points.

His next match was a much closer technical battle with Felipe Pena, a draw on points that went to a split referee’s decision in Buchecha’s favor. His semifinal match did not take place as Fellipe Andrew withdrew from the bracket unable to continue.

On the other side Leandro Lo had his hands full with matches against Gustavo Elias of Ribeiro JJ, Luiz Panza and Keenan Cornelius. The match with Elias ended in an uneventful 2-0, but Lo showed a more aggressive game to tap out Panza with a shoulder lock from the reverse triangle.

The match with Keenan went down to the wire with Lo getting a unanimous decision thanks to his takedown attempts and work rate. He showed technical smarts in shutting down the American’s late game, although it’s not unfair to say Keenan looked wasted after his quarterfinal match with Meregali. Just watch our post-match interview with Keenan and see how drained he looks.

Buchecha and Lo will advance into the finals on Sunday for the third year in a row. They fought in 2017 with Buchecha winning on points after a hard-fought war, and Buchecha gifted Lo the gold in 2018 after Lo dislocated his shoulder in the super-heavyweight final.

The Keenan-Meregali Match Everybody Is Talking About

One of the most anticipated showdowns of the absolute division delivered beyond expectations. Keenan Cornelius managed to derail Nicholas Meregali’s dream of a gold medal in the absolute division by beating him in a charged quarterfinal match.

Keenan went up 2-0 thanks to his lapel trickery. Meregali chased after him for over half the match with triangle and loop choke attempts, but couldn’t secure anything on the slippery American. He racked up 8 advantages but maybe got blood hungry– he was so focused on the submission that had he sought out the sweep instead he maybe could have clawed it back.

The crowd went crazy when Keenan won– they cheered him like he was the hero of the tournament, and even some of his former Atos teammates could be heard chanting his name. Meregali is no hero around these parts, and they relished the fact Keenan denied him a chance to make it to the absolute podium.

Scroll down for full absolute results and links to watch the match videos

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Ruan Alvarenga from Alliance Marcelo Garcia was on fire at No-Gi Pans this morning, tapping his way through the brown belt featherweight division. Ruan won the ADCC South American trials to qualify for ADCC later this month but still signed up for No-Gi Pans just a couple weeks out from ADCC. If he was looking at this event as a warm-up for ADCC it certainly worked out for him as he barely broke a sweat on his way to gold.

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